Virginia Beach School Board Gives Parents The Middle Finger

Virginia Democrats.

Has there ever been a more arrogant bunch?

In 2020 they were convinced that they had turned Virginia bright blue. They believed there would never be another Republican in the Governor’s Mansion. They believed they had a license to implement a smorgasbord of far-left policies.

For example, they wanted to allow boys who pretend they are girls into school areas previously reserved for females only.

They wanted to make sure that boys could shower with the daughters and granddaughters of Virginians in high school locker rooms. They wanted boys prowling around girls’ bathrooms and tampons in boys’ rooms.

Worse, they wanted schools to alienate children from their parents by allowing troubled kids to switch genders in school without telling parents. They wanted to force teachers to use whatever wacky pronouns students desired.

The all-blue General Assembly wanted to make sure that these radical school policies were implemented in every corner of the commonwealth, not just in the liberal metropolitan areas.

So they blithely passed 22.1-23.3 Treatment of Transgender Students.

In effect, it tells school boards that they have no choice but to implement the transgender policies of the the state’s department of education.

Each school board shall adopt policies that are consistent with but may be more comprehensive than the model policies developed by the Department of Education.

Most districts ignored the radical policy but the Virginia Beach School Board obediently adopted the Northam administration policies that tied the hands of teachers and school administrators, forbidding them to communicate with parents or others about the trans status of students. They guaranteed that boys who “identified” as girls would be able to invade the once-safe spaces of girls.

What the Democrats never saw coming was the backlash to their dangerous policies. That backlash resulted in a stunning November 2021 trifecta of victories. One day Democrats were running the commonwealth. The next Glenn Youngkin, Winsome Sears and Jason Miyares were in charge.

That meant there were changes at Virginia’s Department of Education, too. Naturally, the transgender policies changed.

Suddenly, far-left school boards realize that the 2020 law that they once supported now mandated their fealty to Youngkin’s popular, common-sense transgender policies that say children shall use the bathrooms and locker rooms that conform with their biological sex.

Students are still allowed to “transition” to the opposite sex in school, but only with the consent of their parents.

And just like that, Democrats now hate 22.1-23.3, the bill they passed to bully rural areas into accepting their nutty policies about gender. School boards in Northern Virginia and other left-wing strongholds are defying it and setting themselves up for expensive, time-wasting lawsuits.

On Tuesday night, the Virginia Beach School Board joined the crazies liberals by rejecting the adoption of Youngkin’s policies in a 5-5 tie vote.

Wait. There are 11 members of the board.

Jen Franklin

What happened, you ask?

Cowardly Jen Franklin, who reportedly calls herself a Republican, abstained on the vote.

In other words, the residents of District 1, Kempsville, had no representation - no voice - at the meeting.

If Franklin doesn’t have the courage to vote on the most consequential matter to face the board so far this year, she should make way for someone who WILL.

This feckless board member needs to resign. Immediately. What’s the point of running for elected office if once you get there, you suck your thumb during major votes?

Vicky Manning, one of the five who voted to adopt Youngkin’s policy, sounded the alarm today on Facebook.

Surely an intelligent person living in this district will come forward and knock this obstructionist off the board in the next election.

By not voting, Franklin ensured that Northam’s policies would continue to control Beach school policy. She ensured that when students go on overnight field trips there is a chance that girls could be assigned rooms with biological boys.

What could possibly go wrong?

Franklin is no different from State Sen. Louise Lucas whose “brick wall” in the General Assembly tries to torpedo the governor’s policies at every turn.

The hard-left members of the Virginia Beach School Board will say they protected the right of trans students on Tuesday night.

They didn’t.

Instead, they gave a giant middle finger to Beach parents.